n the Argyrocastro area, where
many thousands of Greeks and Grecophils were handed over to Albania; as
for the Serbs, it was only through the efforts of some British experts
that they obtained any satisfaction at all.

Why did the Ambassadors' Conference arrive at this peculiar decision?
For a long time the European Press had been publishing telegrams which
told how the Serbs were ruthlessly invading Albania. Had they advanced
about half the number of miles with which they were credited, they would
have found themselves near to the offices of those Italian Press
agencies. They were held up to vituperation for their conduct towards a
feeble neighbour. The Mirditi, we were told, had to fly before them;
whereas the truth was that the friendly Mirditi were driving the troops
of Tirana helter-skelter towards the Black Drin, where the Serbs--not
advancing an inch from the boundary which the Allies had for the time
being assigned to them--received their prisoners. Again we were told
that the piratical Serbs had seized the town of Alessio. It must have
annoyed the Mirditi to have this exploit of theirs ascribed to other
people. And if the newspapers contained too many telegrams of this kind
they were strangely reticent with regard to what was taking place in the
shallow Albanian harbours; but the two Italian vessels which--as I
mentioned in a telegram to the _Observer_--were unloading, without the
least concealment, munitions and rifles for the dear Albanians at San
Giovanni di Medua in September 1920, were probably not the only ones
with such a cargo. Europe and the Ambassadors' Conference were simply
told that the truculent Serbs were destroying a poor, defenceless,
pastoral nation. Therefore these Serbs must be ordered back, and
whatever might be the merits of a hostile Austrian frontier as compared
with a well-informed French one, at any rate the first of these was
farther back, so let the Serbs be ordered thither.

It was noticeable that when, on November 17, the British Minister of
Education, Mr. H. A. L. Fisher (representing Mr. Lloyd George),
explained before the Council of the League of Nations why Great Britain
had thought it necessary to act in this Serbo-Albanian affair, he
founded his case not on Article 16 but on Article 12, which obliges two
conflicting nations who are members of the League to have their case
examined by the League. Evidently the suggested application of Article
16 was now acknowledged to have b